Parallel Bible results for "ephesians 2"

Ephesians 2

New Revised Standard NRS

1 You were dead through the trespasses and sins

2 in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.

3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us

5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ —by grace you have been saved—

6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—

9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

11 So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called "the uncircumcision" by those who are called "the circumcision"—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands—

12 remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

14 For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.

15 He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace,

16 and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.

17 So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near;

18 for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,

20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.

21 In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord;

22 in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

The Message Bible MSG

1 It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin.

2 You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience.

3 We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us.

4 Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love,

5 he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us!

6 Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

7 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus.

8 Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish!

9 We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing!

10 No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

11 But don't take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God's ways

12 had no idea of any of this, didn't know the first thing about the way God works, hadn't the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God's covenants and promises in Israel, hadn't a clue about what God was doing in the world at large.

13 Now because of Christ - dying that death, shedding that blood - you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.

14 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we're now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance.

15 He repealed the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.

16 Christ brought us together through his death on the Cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility.

17 Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders.

18 He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father.

19 That's plain enough, isn't it? You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all - irrespective of how we got here - in what he is building.

20 He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone

21 that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day - a holy temple built by God,

22 all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.